Anti-Religious Trolling On Mumsnet

[DioneTheDiabolist]

I get that not everyone is religious and that some people are very anti-religious (some with good reasons).

But some MNetters are religious, others are simply curious. So how come so many threads are allowed to be derailed by anti-religious trolls? Today a thread about Good Friday was deleted because a troll came on. FFS, it's Easter! Threads about Islam are regularly derailed by Islamophobes. On a thread seeking information on Judaism in the Philosophy & Religion topic, a troll has posted LMFAO. Ok, serious question, why does the Jewish God make all men wear a funny beards? She continues venting for a few posts before eventually exiting the thread saying that she is on drugs because It's Easter, party time.

She is a MN regular, like most of the anti-religious trolls here. I have reported her posts but they still stand.

Trolls are not interested in knowing what other people think or believe. They have no desire to discuss the point of actual threads and rarely start threads of their own regarding their issues with religion or belief. They just derail threads in the hope of driving all talk of religion and different beliefs off MN. And they are succeeding.

Why are MNHQ allowing this to happen? Deleting threads instead of dealing with posters? Allowing blatant anti-religious trolling to derail threads that people may find supportive or informative? Is MN a religion free zone? Because if it is, that's ok. I just think that religious posters should be told. Then they can go elsewhere if they wish to discuss their beliefs.

There's someone over trying to derail the new thread now 😞

Ah, but 7Days you will be told now how concerned people are that religion or spiritual beliefs or belief in the paranormal do harm people actually

@UmbongoUnchained

There's someone over trying to derail the new thread now 😞

Thanks, Umbongo, we'll take a look now.

I'm not derailing anything - this thread is about how it's impossible to have a conversation in the religion or spirituality topic without it being vandalised. So that in the end, if you were asking for advice, or to talk about and not debate something, you ended up not being able to do so.

I've tried to demonstrate how this has been going on for years and how tiresome and boring it is. And how I object to it being dressed up as concern. As I said, I'm glad this thread has been started because I often don't post questions in the Religion topic any more because I'm not in the mood to feel peed off. And that's exactly what some people want.

Ie, what they want is for people not to discuss it. IMHO

Some of us enjoy discussions about religion and spirituality regardless of our own particular standpoint.

And Lottie- I am never going to stand by and let someone take a course of action which I sincerely believe to be potentially damaging to a child. That person saying they don't want to hear from anyone except people who support them will not stop me. And it shouldn't. I think linking to that particular thread does not help your cause.

That's my opinion too.
Sometimes things are just not about you
Proselytizing of any stripe gets my goat.

Well if you enjoy having a discussion about it or a debate then good for you. Start your own thread - don't vandalise someone else's. There is no reason for it.

I don't have any cause - what are you talking about? If you're concerned about a child's welfare then contact social services.

OTOH - I feel that obviously there have been cases where trolls have started threads about the paranormal which have been proven to have been made up. One that springs to mind is the ghost at the mill where someone was working. I think IIRC that was made up? These threads obviously don't help either.

In the thread I linked to, the OP eventually disappeared and I can see why.

"don't have any cause - what are you talking about? If you're concerned about a child's welfare then contact social services."

I meant your cause of nobody being allowed to question anything anyone says in the name of belief.

And your last sentence is clearly ridiculous.

I didn't say nobody was allowed to question anything, I said that there is no need to vandalise someone else's thread when you could quite easily start your own entitled 'Further to the X thread, I think people should look at rational explanations, discuss'. When I say you I mean generic you btw. But people don't do that as the OP has also observed.

Which can only lead to the rather irritating conclusion that some people want to shut down discussions about religion or anything they don't believe in and drive conversations about these things off MN.

Even if you start a completely non woo thread like 'talk to me about different styles of worship' you will get people saying 'why on earth do you believe in God'

I repeat. On the thread you linked to there was a child who was was potentially at risk/likely to be more frightened. I am not going to leave that unchallenged.

Starting another thread saying "ooh, isn't it awful!" would not have been helpful.

But I'm not talking about one thread. I used that thread as an example because the OP repeatedly said 'I accept that some people won't believe me but could you please not derail the thread' amd everyone ignored her.

As I say if you are really that concerned about a child then contact social services.

"As I say if you are really that concerned about a child then contact social services."

And as I said before that is a ridiculous sentence.

I don't see why. I've seen it suggested before if someone is concerned about a child's welfare.

And even if it could be reported, telling a frightened child that she is being haunted by a ghost child and holding an exorcism is not really a matter for social services. Sadly.

No actually it's not. And it has happened before.

If you think a child is really at risk then what else would you do?

Well trying to railroad an opinion onto someone who isn't going to change their mind is pointless and arrogant.

"Well trying to railroad an opinion onto someone who isn't going to change their mind is pointless and arrogant."

They might change their mind. I posted a childhood experience of my own on that thread that if the OP had an even slightly open mind would have caused her to stop and think. But she didn't. Not even for her second. Because it was most definitely a ghost child. No other possible explanation. None. Which is pretty bloody arrogant in my book.

Anyway.

My opinion about that thread is neither here nor there. There are always going to be threads that people don't agree with. Some people think it's extremely damaging to believe in God.

Why is it acceptable for people to jump into these threads throwing around insults and belittling people's beliefs?

I quite agree. Why is it acceptable for people to knock on my front door and tell me that I'm wrong? Why is it acceptable for people to stand in the street insulting my atheism, belittling my belief that there is no God. Why can they tell me that I'm going to hell but if I say that you are wrong then l am being rude and not respecting your belief?

I would never dream of going on a 'faith based' thread and throwing insults around but please be aware that I for me the Christian God occupies the same space in my belief system as Zeus and Odin.